580 years later, imperfect porcelain arrives at Forbidden City

An exhibition at the Palace Museum about the Ming Dynasty imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, a porcelain town in Jiangxi province, has brought pieces restored from unearthed ceramic chips together for the first time with the museum's well-preserved royal collections.[Photo/Xinhua]

Some 160 pieces of porcelain deemed not good enough for China's royal court and shattered 580 years ago have finally made their way to the Forbidden City.

An exhibition at the Palace Museum about the Ming Dynasty imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, a porcelain town in Jiangxi province, has brought pieces restored from unearthed ceramic chips together for the first time with the museum's well-preserved royal collections.

Lu Chenglong, deputy chief of the Utensil Department of the Museum, said the three-month-long exhibition, which closes on Sept 3, was overdue.

"We have been planning this kind of exhibition since as early as the 1990s, but could not do it for various reasons," he said.

Through strengthened cooperation with local museums, especially the Institute of Archaeology of Porcelain of Jingdezhen City this year, the porcelain finally left Jingdezhen for Beijing to be displayed alongside 137 perfect vessels made from the same royal kilns.

"Although a great deal of royal porcelain has been passed down by the imperial families, there is so much we don't know about royal porcelain production at that time. Visitors can clearly observe the difference by comparing the substandard and perfect pieces," he said.

A man surnamed Wu who runs an antique store in Beijing has visited the exhibition twice in two months. "The comparison display is very valuable. It helps us improve our understanding of ancient porcelain," he said.

He noted that the defective pieces are either misshapen or have flawed colors or drawings.

Since the 1970s, Chinese archaeologists have unearthed dozens of tonnes of ceramic chips from the ruins of ancient royal kilns in Jingdezhen and restored 1,400 pieces so far.